A novel of love, longing, and art set in interwar Paris, The Dictionary of Animal Languages will appeal to readers of All the Light We Cannot See and The Disappeared. Ivory Frame is a renowned artist. Now in her nineties, the famously reclusive painter remains devoted to her work. She has never married, never had a family, never had a child. So when a letter arrives disclosing that she has a granddaughter living in New York, her world is turned upside down and the past is brought painfully to life. Disowned by her bourgeois family, the young Ivory had gone to interwar Paris to study art, and quickly found her true home among the avant-garde painters and poets who crowd the city's cafes. In fellow painter Tacita, she finds the sister she never had. In the Zoological Gardens, she finds a subject for her art capable of fascinating her endlessly. And in Lev, the brooding, haunted Russian émigré painter fleeing the Revolution and destined for greatness, she finds the love that will mark her life forever. But she loses all this, and more, when the Second World War sweeps away the life she has only just discovered. In her grief, she turns to the project she had begun in Paris, and which will consume the rest of her life: a dictionary of animal languages. Part science, part art, the dictionary strives to transcribe the wordless yearning of animals, the lonely and love-laden cries that expect no response. By nature solitary, Ivory withdraws fully into herself as she pursues her life's work. Until the discovery of one of Lev's paintings from 1940, inscribed to Ivory and now worth a fortune, brings to light a secret from her time in Paris that even Ivory could never guess. Now in her nineties, she is forced to acknowledge afresh all she has lost, and also to find meaning and beauty in a world defined by longing. Masterfully written, and emotionally charged, The Dictionary of Animal Languages is about love and grief and art and the realization that, like tragedy, the best things in life arrive out of the blue.

The Dictionary of Animal Languages

Literature & Fiction

Sopinka, Heidi

Literary

Hamish Hamilton

One of over 400 titles in the Insight series, 
Insight Guide East Asia. This 412-page book includes chapters detailing the history of each of the region's four countries, features covering aspects of the area's life and culture, ranging from Chinese porcelain to Japanese Shintoism, a country by country visitor's guide to the sights, and a comprehensive Travel Tips section packed with essential contact addresses and numbers. Plus more than 250 astounding photographs and 16 maps.

Insight Guide East Asia (Insight Guides)

Travel

Asia

Insight Guides

Compact Guide Montreal This book includes a chapter detailing Montreal's history and culture, 7 tours taking in sights ranging from the excitement of the Expo Islands to the elegance of Sherbrooke, and from the bustle of the Old Port to the peace of Mont Royal, leisure-time suggestions, and a comprehensive information section packed with essential contact addresses and numbers. Plus dozens of top-notch photographs and maps.

Insight Compact Guide Montreal (Insight Compact Guides)

Canada

We grant men a right to solitude. Why can’t we do the same for women? Born into a wealthy family in northern England and sent to boarding school to be educated by nuns, Ivory Frame rebels. She escapes to interwar Paris, where she finds herself through art, and falls in with the most radical bohemians: the surrealists. Torn between an intense love affair with a married Russian painter and her ambition to create, Ivory’s life is violently interrupted by the Second World War. She flees from Europe, leaving behind her friends, her art, and her love. Now over ninety, Ivory labours defiantly in the frozen north on her last, greatest work ― a vast account of animal languages ― alone except for her sharp research assistant, Skeet. And then unexpected news from the past arrives: this magnificently fervent, complex woman is told that she has a grandchild, despite never having had a child of her own.

Arts & Photography

Individual Artists

Scribe US

Utopia

It’s okay for men to make bad art. There’s no price on their head for doing it … Nothing for men is pre-determined, except their chance at great success. 
Los Angeles, 1978. 
When Romy, a gifted young artist in the male-dominated art scene of 1970s California, dies in suspicious circumstances, it is not long before her art-star husband Billy finds a replacement. 
Paz, fresh out of art school in New York, returns to California to take her place. But she is haunted by Romy, who is everywhere: in the photos and notebooks and art strewn around the house, and in the eyes of the baby she left behind. 
As Paz attempts to claim her creative life, strange things begin to happen. Photographs move, noises reverberate through the house, people start to question what really happened the night Romy died, and then a postcard in her handwriting arrives. As Paz becomes increasingly obsessed with the woman she has replaced, a disturbing picture begins to emerge, driving her deep into the desert―the site of Romy’s final artwork―to uncover the truth. 
At once an exquisite exploration of creativity and an atmospheric page-turner, Utopia is a book that takes hold of you and will leave you altered.

Insight Guide Southeast Asia

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Books by Sopinka, Heidi

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sopinka, Heidi. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Dictionary of Animal Languages

Insight Guide East Asia (Insight Guides)

Insight Compact Guide Montreal (Insight Compact Guides)

The Dictionary of Animal Languages

The Dictionary of Animal Languages

Utopia

Insight Guide Southeast Asia